Collector comes up with rice-for-plastic idea

Villagers offered one kg rice for collecting one kg plastic; 250 plastic collection centres opened across Mulug

If creating awareness on the harmful effects of plastic is one way of discouraging its use, District Collector C. Narayana Reddy has come up with a novel idea of offering one kilogram of rice to those who collect one kilogram of plastic in village panchayats.

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Narayana Reddy said, “The programme was launched on October 16 and so far, the district officials have distributed over 4,000 kg of rice in several villages”. The Collector has set up plastic collection centres at all gram panchayats where in exchange for every kilogram of single-use plastic, villagers are given a kilogram of rice.

This is not the first time that the Collector has come up with innovative ways to deal with problems. One of the programmes launched by him includes ‘Maa Rythu Maa Raju – Mulugu Udyogulam, Rythu Sevakulam’.

“We have several tourist attractions including Laknavaram, Medaram shrines and Ramappa temple and scores of people visit them every day. It plastic is littered around at these places, it may show Mulug district in bad light. This is also the reason why we are motivating locals to be a part of the programme,” he said.

He said they have set up a total of 250 single-use plastic collection centres across the district to recover plastic collected by people. He further said they have also asked the street vendors, retail shop owners and other stakeholders to strictly follow the ban on plastic and use paper or jute bags instead.

The Collector said they have been providing training to women from self help groups on how to make paper and jute bags. “With that, they can generate monthly income for their families. We request the public to stop the use of plastic bags and use jute or cloth bags,” he said.